53 Facts About NASA

NASA was established in 1958, succeeding the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, to give the US space development effort a distinctly civilian orientation, emphasizing peaceful applications in space science.

Since its establishment, most American space exploration efforts have been led by NASA, including the Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station, and later the Space Shuttle.

NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion spacecraft, the Space Launch System, Commercial Crew vehicles, and the planned Lunar Gateway space station.

NASA's science is focused on better understanding Earth through the Earth Observing System; advancing heliophysics through the efforts of the Science Mission Directorate's Heliophysics Research Program; exploring bodies throughout the Solar System with advanced robotic spacecraft such as New Horizons; and researching astrophysics topics, such as the Big Bang, through the Great Observatories and associated programs.

NASA's administrator is nominated by the President of the United States subject to the approval of the US Senate, and serves at the President's pleasure as a senior space science advisor.

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In December 1958, NASA gained control of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a contractor facility operated by the California Institute of Technology.

NASA was appointed for a second term as administrator from May 1986 through April 1989 by President Ronald Reagan to help the agency recover from the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

NASA seal was approved by Eisenhower in 1959, and slightly modified by President John F Kennedy in 1961.

Four of these were inherited from NACA; two others were transferred from the Army; and NASA commissioned and built the other four itself shortly after its formation.

NASA inherited NACA's X-15 experimental rocket-powered hypersonic research aircraft, developed in conjunction with the US Air Force and Navy.

In 1958, NASA formed an engineering group, the Space Task Group, to manage their human spaceflight programs under the direction of Robert Gilruth.

NASA inherited the US Air Force's Man in Space Soonest program, which considered many crewed spacecraft designs ranging from rocket planes like the X-15, to small ballistic space capsules.

NASA planned to have the in-development Space Shuttle dock with it, and elevate Skylab to a higher safe altitude, but the Shuttle was not ready for flight before Skylab's re-entry and demise on July 11, 1979.

These would be supported by replacing NASA's existing expendable launch systems with a reusable infrastructure including Earth orbit shuttles, space tugs, and a nuclear-powered trans-lunar and interplanetary shuttle.

The strength of their cooperation on this project was even more evident when NASA began relying on Russian launch vehicles to service the ISS during the two-year grounding of the shuttle fleet following the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

The plan was enacted into law by the NASA Authorization Act of 2005 and directs NASA to develop and launch the Crew Exploration Vehicle by 2010, return Americans to the Moon by 2020, land on Mars as feasible, repair the Hubble Space Telescope, and continue scientific investigation through robotic solar system exploration, human presence on the ISS, Earth observation, and astrophysics research.

The NASA Authorization Act of 2010 was passed by Congress and signed into law on October 11, 2010.

NASA Authorization Act of 2010 required a newly designed HLV be chosen within 90 days of its passing; the launch vehicle was given the name Space Launch System.

NASA undertook a feasibility study in 2012 and developed the Asteroid Redirect Mission as an uncrewed mission to move a boulder-sized near-Earth asteroid into lunar orbit.

NASA has conducted many uncrewed and robotic spaceflight programs throughout its history.

NASA played a role in the development and delivery of early communications satellite technology to orbit.

NASA originally planned in the 1980s to develop Freedom alone, but US budget constraints led to the merger of these projects into a single multi-national program in 1993, managed by NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

Commercial Crew Program provides commercially operated crew transportation service to and from the International Space Station (ISS) under contract to NASA, conducting crew rotations between the expeditions of the International Space Station program.

NASA has contracted for six operational missions from Boeing and fourteen from SpaceX, ensuring sufficient support for ISS through 2030.

Between the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011 and the first operational CCP mission in 2020, NASA relied on the Soyuz program to transport its astronauts to the ISS.

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Since 2017, NASA's crewed spaceflight program has been the Artemis program, which involves the help of US commercial spaceflight companies and international partners such as ESA, JAXA, and CSA.

In 2017, NASA was directed by the congressional NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017 to get humans to Mars-orbit by the 2030s.

In support of the Artemis missions, NASA has been funding private companies to land robotic probes on the lunar surface in a program known as the Commercial Lunar Payload Services.

NASA has conducted many uncrewed and robotic spaceflight programs throughout its history.

NASA continues to play a material in exploration of the solar system as it has for decades.

NASA has authorized the Europa Clipper orbiter mission that is planned to launch in October 2024 and will study the Galilean moon Europa through a series of flybys while in orbit around Jupiter.

NASA has invested significant resources in the development, delivery, and operations of various forms of space telescopes.

NASA operates a number of satellites in orbit collecting scientific data and monitoring the condition of the planet.

NASA invests in various ground and space based infrastructures to support its science and exploration mandate.

Since 1990, NASA has purchased expendable launch vehicle launch services directly from commercial providers, whenever possible, for its scientific and applications missions.

NASA has made use of technologies such as the multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator, which is a type of radioisotope thermoelectric generator used to power spacecraft.

In July 2021, NASA announced contract awards for development of nuclear thermal propulsion reactors.

NASA contracted a third party to study the probability of using Free Space Optics to communicate with Optical (laser) Stations on the Ground (OGS) called laser-com RF networks for satellite communications.

On July 29, 2020, NASA requested American universities to propose new technologies for extracting water from the lunar soil and developing power systems.

In June 2021, NASA authorized the development of the NEO Surveillance Mission spacecraft to reduce that projected duration to achieve the mandate down to 10 years.

PDCO objectives have been a part of several key NASA missions, including OSIRIS-REx, NEOWISE, and Double Asteroid Redirection Test.

For NEOWISE, NASA worked with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to investigate various impact-threat scenarios in order to learn the best approach to the threat of an incoming impactor.

NASA said it was “high-risk, high-impact” research that the space agency should not shy away from, even if it is a controversial field of study.

The NASA Authorization Act of 2014 reaffirmed the importance of ASAP.

In September 2020, the Space Force and NASA signed a memorandum of understanding formally acknowledging the joint role of both agencies.

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JAXA and NASA have collaborated on numerous satellite programs, especially in areas of earth science.

NASA addressed environmental concerns with its canceled Constellation program in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act in 2011.

Bob Walker, who has advised US President Donald Trump on space issues, has advocated that NASA should focus on space exploration and that its climate study operations should be transferred to other agencies such as NOAA.

NASA won the 2020 Webby People's Voice Award for Green in the category Web.

NASA started an annual competition in 2014 named Cubes in Space.

NASA announced the temporary closure of all visitor complexes at its field centers until further notice and asked all non-critical personnel to work from home if possible.

NASA has operated a television service since the beginning of the space program for archival purposes, and in order to provide media outlets with video footage.

NASA EDGE is a video podcast which explores different missions, technologies and projects developed by NASA.